WASHINGTON - Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst would be the third richest senator in the United States if elected, jumping in front of even West Virginia's Rockefeller heir John D. IV, the latest federal financial disclosure reports show.

The Houston businessman has a net worth of about $177 million, with assets and liabilities taken into account, according to a Houston Chronicle analysis of his 2011 personal financial disclosure reports filed with the Senate Ethics Committee. The reports document his vast investments in energy, banks, real estate, financial services and telecommunications.

His investment portfolio describes his 2011 investment income as ranging from $3.1 million to $14 million, in addition to the $68,666.59 salary he earned as the state's lieutenant governor and acting governor when Rick Perry was out of state campaigning.

The U.S. Senate - often described as "the world's most exclusive club" - has at least 54 millionaires among its 100 members.

If Dewhurst defeats former Texas Solicitor General Ted Cruz in the July 31 Republican runoff and then wins the seat in the Nov. 6 election, he would rank just behind Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., and Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., according to the most recent data on lawmakers' net worth in 2010 from the nonpartisan Center for Responsive Politics.

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And he would be the first super-rich senator from Texas since Sen. Lloyd Bentsen, the Houston Democrat who served in the Senate from 1971 to 1993.

Dewhurst's federal financial disclosure documents offer voters the most detailed look yet at one of the state's richest elected officials.

The reports required from lawmakers and candidates are not an exact statement of a person's wealth. The reports ask for values in broad ranges, with the highest category for assets and liabilities marked as "over $50 million" - meaning the actual value of the checked box could be far greater than $50 million.

Kerry, whose wife, Teresa Heinz, is an heiress to the Heinz ketchup fortune, leads the Senate's wealthiest list with a net worth of $232 million, according to the center's data on 2010 disclosure reports. Warner, a former technology venture capitalist, has a net worth of $193 million, the center estimates.

The wealthiest member of Congress is Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., whose net worth of $448 million stems from his fortune in the car alarm business, recording the famous "please step away from the car" warning.

Cruz, Dewhurst's Tea Party-backed opponent, reported a relatively modest financial portfolio. Cruz's net worth adds up to about $1.5 million, according to the analysis. He reported holdings in financial firms like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase, along with stocks in the Coca Cola Company, AT&T and the drug-maker Pfizer.

His 2011 income ranged between $1.8 million and $1.9 million, largely derived from his $1.75 million salary from the Philadelphia-based international law firm Morgan, Lewis & Bockius, where he is a partner.

His individual stocks last year included holdings of more than $100,000 in aircraft manufacturer Boeing, JPMorgan Chase, the Carnival cruise line, Comcast, Visa and Wells Fargo. The documents also show holdings in various Goldman Sachs accounts worth more than $3 million.

Dewhurst's actual net worth could range from $121 million to $233 million, depending on whether his assets and liabilities are at the high or low end of the ranges included in the disclosure reports. The average of those ranges - which traditionally has been used to estimate congressional wealth - is $177 million.